368 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



will plant twenty acres a day. It can also be made to plant in a continu- 

 ous drill, and at any desired width, two or three rows at once. The cost 

 is $35. It appears well adapted to the purpose, and an improvement upon 

 its numerous predecessors. 



STEAMING FOOD FOR CATTLE. 



Mr, Prindle also exhibited a very compact machine for steaming food 

 for cattle, costing $28. 



GRAPE CULTIVATION. 



This subject having been on the calendar some time, was called up to-day, 

 and Dr. Underbill made an address upon the subject of his particular sort 

 of grapes, contending for the excellence of the Isabella, and going into the 

 history and reason why our native grapes have the prefix of fox attached. 

 He contends that the foxiness of the wild grapes is lost by cultivation, and 

 that the Isabella and Catawba are, par excellence, the best and most culti- 

 vated of all others. 



R. Gr. Pardee contradicted the assertion of Dr. Underbill, that grapes 

 would not succeed in clayey soils, and instanced some of the most success- 

 ful cases of grape culture upon clayey soils in Central New York. In one 

 garden, where there are twenty sorts of grapes growing in a most obsti- 

 nate clay, all succeeded ; but the Dianas are the best of all. 



Wm. S. Carpenter. — I have just such sandy soil as the doctor describes, 

 as the only suitable sort for grapes, and I cannot succeed with Isabellas. 



Dr. Underbill. — I take off four-fifths of the fruit in the blossom, or when 

 it is about the size of wheat. 



Mr. Provost, of Brooklyn. — I have two vineyards upon a stiff blue clay, 

 and I have one native vine that gave me a barrel of wine last year, and 

 my vineyard has borne well for twenty years, and it bears best where the 

 land is most clayey ; and I have made 1,500 gallons of wine frcm an acre. 

 I dress the surface of my ground every year with sand. I do not pull off 

 my grapes, but let the vines bear. 



Mr. Cavenach objected to a statement of Dr. Underbill, that the Dela- 

 ware is a feeble grower. So far as he knows, it is as strong a growing vine 

 as any that he knows. 



Wm. S. Carpenter stated that his Delaware vine is a vigorous, strong 

 grower. 



Mr. Cavenach stated that all vines that were trimmed in February, a 

 few days ago were killed down to the ground. 



John G. Bergen. — The same thing occurred to many vines on Lorg 

 Island, t© vines that were not pruned at all. 



Mr. Pardee objected to pruning vines with upright instead of horizontal 

 spurs. 



KYANIZING TIMBER. 



J. W. Fairchild, a successful kyanizer of timber for his own use, at his 

 place at Hudson, N. Y., writes to correct an error in the report of Mr. 

 Pardee's lecture at New Haven. He says the report states that the mix- 



